Linda Fletcher is a former Chronicle and Weekly News reporter and sub-editor (1973-2013).
Linda Fletcher is a former Chronicle and Weekly News reporter and sub-editor (1973-2013).
I was born with printer’s ink in my veins — my father Alec was once a Chronicle apprentice printer and later the founder of the Weekly News.
Though I started full-time on staff in 1973, I began writing reviews of national and international acts in concert eight years before, aged 12.
Over the past 40 years, I have been a reporter and a sub-editor with both local papers, seeing the production of the newspaper operation from pen and paper to the full computerised process it is today, with the daily deadlines squeezed from 1pm to 9am; from the heady days of 16 editorial staff, including photographers, down to three and no photographer.
The newspaper has had numerous different faces — Levin Daily Chronicle, Chronicle, Horowhenua-Kapiti Chronicle, Horowhenua Chronicle.
I worked with seven editors — George Kerslake, Bryan Atkinson, Alister Campbell, Dave Saunders, Bernie Whelan, Simon Waters, Stephen Bell — in that time, as well as dozens of reporters. The Chronicle was the stepping stone for many young journalists fresh from a polytech course who went on to better things; Yvonne Tahana, TVNZ’s Māori affairs reporter via the New Zealand Herald, stands out.
Most of my career has been as a sub-editor. It’s what I loved best. I felt comfortable checking other people’s stories and preparing them for the paper, putting stories and photographs on pages. The result was very satisfying.
When the business was shifted from Oxford St (where Norca Rugs is now) it was done in stages, with the printing press going first over a long weekend and all other departments following.
The sub-editors were upstairs in the new building, one of the first to move in. It was freezing cold, and we found it difficult to get warm.
My parents lived just around the corner in Exeter St, and at morning teatime brought us hot soup and scones — a welcome to the neighbourhood as much as an attempt to warm us up.
The new sub-editors’ room was quite luxurious compared to our dingy quarters in the centre of the old building. Having a window was a real novelty, but what was really special, was the view of the Tararua Ranges. And we didn’t have to leave the building to see the temperature on the town clock for our daily weather segment.
For a time, the Saturday paper was produced and sent to Whanganui for printing on Friday night. There were some red faces when the Rangiatea Church in Ōtaki burned down. By the time the news got out the paper was printed and back in Levin ready for delivery.
Key editorial staff were out of town and a few junior staff helped management put together a wrap-around fire edition. Meanwhile, downstairs it was all hands on deck to unwrap papers that were already rolled and when the wrap-around was back they had to hand collate every one of them again — about 6800 papers.
There were many happy social times with the large staff — Christmas parties, day trips, mid-winter Christmas dinners, sporting events against other companies, and the Chronicle Christmas Parade, run by staff for years and one of my happiest memories.
Levin hadn’t had a Christmas parade for many years and the Chronicle revived it in 1990 after purchasing the sleigh and reindeer from the PDC in Palmerston North in its closing down sale of furniture and equipment. General manager Maurie McCaul and accountant Blair Ambrose attended the sale to see what they could find and much to their surprise came home with the full Christmas package.
The float was the cornerstone of years of work from the staff. Everyone from the printing department, press room, advertising and editorial staff all worked together to make it a success.
The first parade in 1990 was a huge achievement and encouraged the staff to make the next one bigger and better. We decided we needed more clowns and a team of women around town started making costumes with fabric donated by Levana. Balloons were added to the mix as well as flags, printed and made in the commercial print department. A working bee bagged lollies in the evening, a whole lot of comradery.
All the floats, which grew in number and creativity each year, gathered at the former Levin School grounds (now The Adventure Park) under the direction of parade marshal, advertising manager Cliff Mackay. We were lucky with the weather every year and only wind ever got in the way and messed with balloons.
The wonderful Geoff Denton was with us from the start as Father Christmas until he was retired by the Horowhenua District Council when it took over the running of the parade.
Our kids were Father Christmas’s fairies and clowns and we were parade marshals, make-up artists and rubbish collectors after the end of the parade.
It was tremendous fun.
There are so many faces I have pictured as I write this final piece for the Horowhenua Chronicle: Bryan Atkinson and Dave Saunders, both exceptional editors; reporters Ray Bourne, Janice Swanwick and Kent Atkinson from the early days; demon proofreaders Biddy Gabities and Beryl Jenkins; golden oldies Pam Smith and Bob Malcolmson; sub-editor Denise Jones; in the office Pam Kearns who has been with the paper since 1982 and in more recent years, the wonderful Frankie Webb and Tanya Wood, reporters who have remained friends.
In other parts of the then-vast building, factory manager Dave Juno, Kevin Ross and Jenny Matakatea in the circulation department, Neale Hoult and Todd McCaul, Ivan Clough, Paul Kerslake and Fleur Roach and the other typesetters in the ‘Department of Conversation’ are all part of my memories.
It’s been a pleasure to be part of the Chronicle all these years. I am going to miss my weekly community newspaper, and I know you will, too, (even though some of you won’t admit it yet).
Farewell and thanks for the memories. And all the best to those having to face a future without the Chronicle.